1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a camera adapted continuously to take photographs by taking an identical subject a plurality of times at a predetermined time interval upon one release of a shutter, more particularly to an improvement of a shutter mechanism for a continuous taking camera.
2. The Known Prior Art
Continuous photograph taking is very convenient in the field of sports and the like since the position of a subject at various times can be recorded as still images. A single lens reflex camera is enabled to take continuous photographs, by attaching a motor drive unit to the camera body, the motor drive unit winding a photographic film one frame after another at a high speed. In such known cameras, however, the operation of the film advancing mechanism and shutter unit generates loud noises. A mechanism is also necessary for synchronizing film advance with shutter release, resulting in a complicated structure and high cost. Furthermore, since several frames are used for each continuous taking, the consumption of film is great, and so the number of continuous takings per roll of film is small. Still further, photographic paper is cut into separate photoprints of original frames so that even in the case of continuously taken scenes, the photoprints are required to be arranged by the photographer himself in the order of taking, when they are observed.
There have been proposed cameras adapted continuously to take photographs by taking one subject a plurality of times at a predetermined time interval upon one release of a shutter via a plurality of exposure chambers. In Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publ. No. 2-105132, a continuous taking camera has been proposed wherein a shutter has a single rotary disk, and one original frame of 35 mm type full size (36.times.24 mm) is split into four original sub-frames in a 2.times.2 matrix, on which four consecutive scenes are sequentially taken in order following one direction of rotation upon one shutter release.
The continuous taking camera disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,202,069 has shutter blades provided for each of a plurality of exposure chambers, and springs for driving the shutter blades, and takes a plurality of original sub-frames by sequentially activating the shutter blades.
The construction according to Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publ. No. 2-105132 is, however, inapplicable to a continuous taking camera for photographing a larger number of sub-frames upon one release of a shutter. It is also difficult and laborious to visually recognize the order of continuous taking on a photoprint obtained from the film exposed in such a camera, even if the customer visually compares the four scenes.
In the camera disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,202,069, the shutter mechanism is excessively complicated, and many parts are required, hence the cost is high. A camera with this structure is difficult to design compactly, and it is difficult to make the shutter blades behave uniformly and so it is difficult to standardize the exposure time and the intervals between sub-frames.
The assignee of the present application proposed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/746,889, filed Aug. 19, 1991, a continuous taking camera which incorporates a shutter having two rotary disks disposed side by side. Each disk has two movable holes, which expose four sub-frames sequentially.
There is a problem in this camera in that the side-by-side disposition of the two disks requires an excessively large space for the shutter in the camera.